Bad habit free… someday

On Monday, I had no caffeine. This may not seem like a big deal to normal people who don’t see caffeine as a big deal, or who don’t drink it all day long, but for us caffeine addicts, it is a huge deal. For me, it is a huge deal. I have given up caffeine before. Last year in fact I went a good 7 months without it. However I let myself have one, then another and well lets just say that on Sunday I drank 4 Diet Pepsi’s and a black tea lemonade from Starbucks.

It’s safe to say I am back on caffeine. So I decided to give it up again.

Giving up things like caffeine and sugar are torturous. On Monday I had such a severe migraine (a problem I have) that it required 15 hours of sleep to feel even semi-normal. Tuesday I was sluggish and felt not great and today, day three I am feeling a migraine coming. It takes about 2-5 days to completely get over the effects of the caffeine withdrawals in my experience. This time around it has been very rough.

So, it begs the question why? Why give it up if it is torturous and you are having a hard time. Well there are 3 reasons I keep telling myself to get through.

1. Aspertame – I just don’t like the idea of ingesting it anymore. I mean a 4 Diet Pepsi a day habit is a lot of this stuff and I am finding myself increasingly drawn to a whole food, toxin free lifestyle. Artificial sugar just can’t play a role in that.

2. Sugar – why not just switch to coffee or regular Pepsi? I don’t like coffee in the slightest so that is out, and drinking sugar is not something that appeals to me. I would love to eventually free myself of refined sugar, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves 🙂 I get plenty of sugar thriughout the day without drinking it thank you, and HFCS kinda weirds me out, not sure why.

3. Cold Turkey – I am not someone who can eat a little of this, and moderate my intake of that. I am all or nothing. One Pepsi in my life turns into a bunch. I do better when I go cold turkey. Unfortunately I have not developed the ability to be “cool” and eat one, drink one and be done with it.

So there you go, one bad habit on the way out. I am thinking I need to make a list on the sidebar that I can cross out when I kick the habit…